Maddie Stone:

or the past eight years, I’ve been working mainly on a late 2012 iMac. I’m no Luddite, but the computer has held up well over the years, and I’ve never felt the need to replace it. Recently, though, my iMac developed its first serious tic: The fan has started to power on loudly every time the computer goes to sleep. While the computer is long past warranty, I decided to call up Apple to see if the company could offer any help. When I did, I learned my iMac is considered “vintage” and was told Apple won’t touch it.

According to Apple, “vintage” devices are those that the company discontinued selling more than five and less than seven years ago. Once Apple hasn’t sold a product for seven years, it’s considered “obsolete,” meaning the company won’t offer any repair services. But vintage products exist in a liminal space: Despite what I learned when I called Apple Support, Apple Stores as well as AASPs can, in theory, repair them for you “subject to availability of inventory, or as required by law,” according to Apple.

In practice, people in the repair community told me Apple isn’t particularly interested in fixing vintage tech.

My beloved 2014 iMac is rapidly coming up on “vintage” status and I worry about repair if anything happens to it. I live in a backwater town with little to no authorized Apple support.